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A big thank you to fellow festers for the wealth of information here. I placed an order for a 2013 335i Sedan M sport 6MT, Dynamic handling pack for pick up on Aug 31st.

Put together this initial draft plan, revising it everyday. We are looking to drive a lot and experience the car, while enjoying the sights along the way. Wanted a mix of mountain driving, and driving along the the riviera. Also wanted to include F1 spots like imola, monaco, monza. Any comments are appreciated.

Day 1 8/30 Get on a plane
Day 2 8/31 Pick up car at Welt; BMW museum
Day 3 9/1 Munich Local sight seeing
Day 4 9/2 Drive to Grossglockner, Bolzano via Pordoi pass
Day 5 9/3 Drive to Venice sightseeing
Day 6 9/4 Imola, Maranello
Day 7 9/5 Florence, Pisa
Day 8 9/6 Monaco
Day 9 9/7 Drive to Milan; Milan Sight seeing
Day 10 9/8 Monza F1 Race Qualifying, Drive to Davos or Bormio
Day 11 9/9 Drive to Munich; Stelvio Pass
Day 12 9/10 Drop off car at Munich Airport and get on the plane.

Is Day 4 doable or is it slower than what google maps tell me?

Anyone care to share their experience being to maranello and imola? Do they let you in the factory or is a waste of time. how much time did it take?

For my taste, that is an overload of places, cities and driving. I am sure, you would be exhausted on day one, when you pick up your car fresh out of the plane. Why don't you reduce your itinerary by 30% (or extend your stay by that much), and then you would reasonably enjoy your trip. For example driving from Monaco to Turin takes +-3 hours (no food stops in between). I do not know your circumstances, but all I see here is that you try to cram as much stuff as possible into just a few days. There is one item missing from your list though: time to enjoy the car and the surroundings. And that's most important in ED.

If you leave the USA on 8/30, you'll arrive MUC on 8/31 in the morning. I'm not sure how old you are , but this could be challenging. I picked up the same day as my arrival back in 2008 (when I was 27), but admittedly that was after flying in Lufthansa First Class, with a visit to the First Class Lounge in Munich for a rain shower, hearty breakfast, and several Red Bulls.

You do seem to be doing a lot of back-tracking in Italy.

I do agree with the above poster that it's a lot, although what I would say is if you want to see all of these places, maybe find a central location and use it as a base (so you're not checking in and out of hotels every day).

With your current itinerary, you're going to travel through all of these great cities, but not really see them.

Good thoughts guys and I really appreciate the input. I am working on cutting back things to do as we speak. The places I really want to see (can't miss) are Stelvio, Milan, Venice, Maranello and Monaco. I started a map with these. Rest of the places are things that seemed like they could be on the way between these places. So, I might just drive through them if time is an issue. For example I am not big on seeing Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Turin , but Bologna happens to be on the way to Maranello from Venice, and Florence, Genoa is on the way to Monaco you get the idea. This is our first European trip, but have done several long distance flights to Asia.

Wow, just realized you and I are picking up a 335i M Sport 6MT Estoril Blue on the same day! That is fantastic! (Mine has the coral interior though, so it won't be too similar ) Either I see you there or not, but congrats! I'll have my own itinerary up soon enough.

My father and I stayed at the Parkhotel Laurin in Bolzano...got into the car in the morning (day prior to departure) and said "Well, what should we do today? Spend time in Munich or afternoon drinks in Kitzbühel". That meant taking the Grossglockner, and I was glad we did. It's a haul from Bolzano, but a beautiful drive, and such a build up for such a great road. I personally liked the Fluela better, but the speeds are much higher on the Grossglockner, and some of the passing you'll do is quite "sporting". I think our total transit time from Bolzano to Hotel Kempinski via Grossglocker and Kitzbühel with a lunch and drink stop in there was 9 hours or so?

That is quite a list of sites. We stopped by Maranello a few years back and were told you could not get into the factory unless you were a customer. But there is the Ferrari museum which is great. They have a large projection screen with some seating and we were there on sunday of an F1 race. The place actually had quite a few people just hanging out and watching the race. Lots of cars, engines, pictures, F1 stuff, etc.

A museum is nice but an arguably better use of time, even if you're a Ferrari fan, is to skip Maranello and go down the street to the Lamborghini factory - make sure to arrange a tour ahead of time. We did this via email. It was excellent. They let you walk the floor, talk with the people building the cars and even serve you cappuccino. You can even hear them test driving the new bulls around town. They have a small museum as well but it pales in comparison to the Ferrari one.

That is quite a list of sites. We stopped by Maranello a few years back and were told you could not get into the factory unless you were a customer. But there is the Ferrari museum which is great. They have a large projection screen with some seating and we were there on sunday of an F1 race. The place actually had quite a few people just hanging out and watching the race. Lots of cars, engines, pictures, F1 stuff, etc.

A museum is nice but an arguably better use of time, even if you're a Ferrari fan, is to skip Maranello and go down the street to the Lamborghini factory - make sure to arrange a tour ahead of time. We did this via email. It was excellent. They let you walk the floor, talk with the people building the cars and even serve you cappuccino. You can even hear them test driving the new bulls around town. They have a small museum as well but it pales in comparison to the Ferrari one.

A big thank you to fellow festers for the wealth of information here. I placed an order for a 2013 335i Sedan M sport 6MT, Dynamic handling pack for pick up on Aug 31st.

Put together this initial draft plan, revising it everyday. We are looking to drive a lot and experience the car, while enjoying the sights along the way. Wanted a mix of mountain driving, and driving along the the riviera. Also wanted to include F1 spots like imola, monaco, monza. Any comments are appreciated.

Day 1 8/30 Get on a plane
Day 2 8/31 Pick up car at Welt; BMW museum
Day 3 9/1 Munich Local sight seeing
Day 4 9/2 Drive to Grossglockner, Bolzano via Pordoi pass
Day 5 9/3 Drive to Venice sightseeing
Day 6 9/4 Imola, Maranello
Day 7 9/5 Florence, Pisa
Day 8 9/6 Monaco
Day 9 9/7 Drive to Milan; Milan Sight seeing
Day 10 9/8 Monza F1 Race Qualifying, Drive to Davos or Bormio
Day 11 9/9 Drive to Munich; Stelvio Pass
Day 12 9/10 Drop off car at Munich Airport and get on the plane.

Is Day 4 doable or is it slower than what google maps tell me?

Anyone care to share their experience being to maranello and imola? Do they let you in the factory or is a waste of time. how much time did it take?

Thanks in advance!

Florence, Pisa --> Pisa is THE Biggest tourist trap in Italy - plan spend no more than 1 hr there. For Florence 1 day is nothing - but if you decided go anyway - I strongly recommended to buy tickets to Ufficy Gallery museum on-line. Then you don't need to stay in 3hrs+ line. If you can - substitute Pisa for Siena - I will skip Pisa for Siena any day.
Walks Inside Florence's three-hour introductory tour costs €50 per person
Recommended place to eat in Florence.
Florence had one of the best gelaterias in Italy.

Quote:

The pricey Firenze Card (€50/person), rolled out last year, has proven to be an expensive but worthwhile option for busy sightseers who plan to see the Uffizi, Accademia, and several other covered sights (Pitti Palace, Brancacci Chapel, Medici Chapels, and many more). If all you want to see is the Uffizi and/or the Accademia, however, getting advance reservations for these sights remains the less-expensive option (your hotelier can help, generally for a small fee).
Devoted David-ites seeking to score last-minute tickets to the Accademia can try dropping by the My Accademia Libreria reservation office, just across the street from the museum's exit, which sells same-day reservations (when available, of course; extra fee; they also sell reservations for other times). Upstairs at the Accademia, a new exhibit displays Florentine altarpieces from 1370-1430--the last gasp of the Middle Ages, just before Renaissance fever hit in full force.

Florence, Pisa --> Pisa is THE Biggest tourist trap in Italy - plan spend no more than 1 hr there. For Florence 1 day is nothing - but if you decided go anyway - I strongly recommended to buy tickets to Ufficy Gallery museum on-line. Then you don't need to stay in 3hrs+ line. If you can - substitute Pisa for Siena - I will skip Pisa for Siena any day.
Walks Inside Florence's three-hour introductory tour costs €50 per person
Florence had one of the best gelaterias in Italy.

We spent two nights in Florence during our ED and it was not enough days. It was my wife's favorite stop on the trip. We're going to book a flight here and stay for a week without a car.

We booked the morning and afternoon tours so that we could see Florence and the Academia in the morning and then the Uffizy Gallery and the David in the afternoon. We also stopped in Lucca for an ATM withdrawal and it looked like a nice place to stay for a night as well. On our car-less trip, we'll probably do a day tour to Sienna with Florence being our home base along with some Tuscan wine touring.

My wife loves Chocolate and ordered a scoop of Chocolate and a scoop of Almond. Next time, she would get two scoops of Almond instead. Ask for a taste if your not sure first.

We spent two nights in Florence during our ED and it was not enough days. It was my wife's favorite stop on the trip. We're going to book a flight here and stay for a week without a car.

We booked the morning and afternoon tours so that we could see Florence and the Academia in the morning and then the Uffizy Gallery and the David in the afternoon. We also stopped in Lucca for an ATM withdrawal and it looked like a nice place to stay for a night as well. On our car-less trip, we'll probably do a day tour to Sienna with Florence being our home base along with some Tuscan wine touring.

My wife loves Chocolate and ordered a scoop of Chocolate and a scoop of Almond. Next time, she would get two scoops of Almond instead. Ask for a taste if your not sure first.

aharding,
Agree with you, Florence was my favorite city on the entire trip too. Hope to post a trip report shortly.

I see. I am working on tuning my itinerary, got sidetracked for a while there this weekend. Will post it as soon as get around to it. Keep the good suggestions coming

Gee...I was just trying to make sure that I wasn't being redundant or unhelpful.

My thought looking at the itinerary posted is that you've got too many location transitions and not enough time in the particular destinations.

For example, your Bolanzo->Venice->Imola trip looks like 2 hrs, location, 2 hrs, location, but you will lose 90 minutes parking and getting from Tronchetto to your hotel and then to "tourist locations in Venice" and be walking around the city. I'm concerned that you will not see what you want in the city unless you start the day early. Also...and maybe we've done Venice wrong on our trips, but you park and haul your luggage to your hotel (which isn't necessarily close to the parking), and then hit the town. Depending on the location of your hotel, you can grab a boat, but anticipate a PITA. If your wife packs like mine...anticipate being sweaty and in need of frothy sustenance before you start site siteseeing. IMHO, Venice isn't worth hitting unless you spend two nights there. You could also consider hotels "near" Venice, many offer boat service into the city (we will do this next time we visit).

As for Florence, it is my absolutely favorite city in Italy (I love Como more, but it's not really a "city"). You "may" be able to hit the highlights in one day if you get reservations at the Uffizi and Academia, but I'd be concerned that you'll be rushed through it. Unless they've changed it - those reservations are based around specific hours that you arrive, so plan carefully. Going to Florence and not seeing David is like going to New York and not eating pizza. If you only spend one night there (reading your itinerary, which I could be misreading), you will also miss one of the best drives in the world (S22 between Florence and Sienna). What we did on our last trip to Florence (and our ED) was to stay outside of Florence (enabling easy driving, tuscan exploration) and used the excellent train system to get into the city for a couple days. We were in Tuscany four nights total and could have easily spent three more.

I'd drop either Venice, Milan or Florence, allowing you to spend a bit more time at the other locations.

__________________

WARNING: Author not responsible for the readers failure to recognize sarcasm.

I did some research based on what you guys suggested here. I am dropping Monaco and time in Milan for additional time in Florence and Sienna. I have to admit I did not know anything about Florence, and I love what I am reading about it. Thinking of Florence as a base for 3 nights. We probably have a full day there - Accademia, Uffizzi, duomo; and a day trip to Sienna on SR222 through the Chianti.

As far as Venice goes, we just want to get in, park the car, take the Water taxi to Venice, stroll around St. Mark's square, basilica, do the gondola. Anything else is a bonus. So, we don't want to spend more than a day there.

Thanks for helping me "find" Florence. I can now see why there are passionate recommendations about Florence.